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Is SEO and Usability Separable or Inseparable?

August 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As a search engine optimization company specializing in helping businesses dominate their respective industries online, we spend a lot of time considering what makes a website not only good, but stellar.

Of course, we spend a good bit of this time evaluating the metrics (a.k.a. algorithm) Google and other search engines use to rank web pages. What makes a certain website appear on page 1, or at the top of page 1?

However, this isn’t the only question we consider.

While search is the dominant way people find information online, we’re also mindful of the experience users have once they land on a website. Therefore, we don’t cater to every little SEO trick out there thinking all we need to do is pepper the right keywords in the right frequency, put up some good metatags and call it a day.

Over doing SEO can certainly “…undermine the user experience” according to a recent column from Jakob Nielsen’s weekly column.

Initially, it’s easy to see SEO and usability as two separate topics – search engine optimization is about “attracting people to your site” by making it show up high in the search results. Usability on the other hand is about the user’s interaction with your site after they’ve found it.

Therefore, the goal of SEO is to attract visitors while the goal of usability is to maximize the numbers of visitors that become actual customers.

Both SEO and usability have to be impressive in order for your site to succeed

If your SEO is stellar but your usability is lousy, plenty of people will find your site but none of them will actually convert.

Likewise, if your usability is great but your SEO is lousy, your site just won’t see too many visitors.

So even though SEO and usability focus on different parts of the lead generation process, there are many ways in which these two elements work together. However, there are a couple of ways they conflict, which I’ll get into below.

One of the first points to understand is that SEO goes well beyond Google. Studies have shown how search is “…the main resource discovery strategy” for most people. This concept applies to those already on your site as well. Many websites though don’t spend much time thinking about their site’s internal search usability, which can kill conversion rates in the end.

This is especially true when it comes to e-commerce type sites – one of the first laws of e-commerce is that your products must be found before they can be purchased. For general, mainstream websites, many users go straight to the site search rather than using navigation. Often times, the internal site search is so bad that users get frustrated and go all the way back to Google to find what they’re looking for.

Therefore, websites have to employ basic SEO techniques in their internal site search functionalities to ensure their site’s usability, and specifically their site search, is the best it can be.

In the long-term, good search rankings will come from how well your site helps users

Since the advent of ranking factors, search engines must use a variety of indirect metrics (i.e. number of links pointing to it) to determine a site’s quality. But as Google and others increasingly move toward evaluating user behaviors, search rankings will more and more be based on usability criteria.

In the short-term, you can try and game the search algorithms…but long-term, this is a losing proposition since these algorithms are always changing. Instead, focus on providing a good experience for your users.

In the long-term, this will generate not only high search rankings, but high conversions as well.

Good short-term SEO and good design are equally important though

Only focusing on how current search algorithms work is a bad idea, yes. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t design your website to work well with today’s search engines.

Offer stable URLs so other sites can easily, and directly link to any piece of content on your site. Use terms in your titles, headline and main content that visitors will use in their searches – meaning, you should avoid cute sounding headlines or words that may sound catchy but no one will understand.

You need to also be sure you use plain text to ensure your site gets indexed in the first place. Information architecture is important too – a clear navigation not only helps your users easily find the products/ services you offer, it also makes it easier for search engines to crawl your site and determine where in your site’s hierarchy a page is located.

Finally, be sure you develop compelling content that attracts links and chatter on social media.

These steps are things you should be doing anyway. But considering these SEO/usability guidelines in tandem will ensure you not only see sustained search rankings, but that you will see increased numbers of click-throughs as well.

Although SEO and usability often go together, there are instances where they conflict

One clear example of this is keyword stuffing. While it may help search rankings in the short-term, keyword stuffing makes your content harder to read.

Fat or obese footers is another point where SEO and usability conflict. While including informative, keyword-rich landing pages in your site’s bottom navigation may be good for search rankings, it can play havoc on the usability of your site since you have so many links going to disparate pages that are hard for users to follow.

In the long-term, sustained search rankings come from having a crawlable site that’s both informative AND usable. As Google continues to increase its reliance on user behavior in determining a site’s quality, you will need to be increasingly mindful of your site’s usability to ensure you stay on top of the search results.

We want to hear your thoughts on how SEO and usability either work together or conflict.

Do you consider one more important than the other?

What do you spend more time worrying about – your site’s ultimate rankings or the user experience once they land on your site?

Related Posts

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10 Important Points to Consider When Redesigning your Website

10 Most Common Web Design Mistakes

“Don’t Make Me Think” – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability – Part I

“Don’t Make Me Think” – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability – Part II

“Don’t Make Me Think” – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability – Part III

 

Filed Under: SEO Technology, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day, Usability Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Using a Bing Search Box Rather than a Google One

December 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Many top websites today include additional features on the site’s pages. One of those is a Google search box, which is integrated with the site-specific search box. You can easily type in a keyword phrase and choose whether to search the site or Google for that information.

A new WebMasterWorld thread though has some webmasters considering a switch to Bing’s search box.

Each has their reasons with one of the big ones being the ease at which the change can be made. One contributor says he’s interested in changing because Google’s “AdSense for Search” already has a plethora of information about his visitors. While he understands Microsoft will get this information too, he feels it will slow the amount of information Google collects in a day.

Another webmaster gives his initial impressions:

  • Easy to setup
  • Results are excellent
  • Results look good
  • Search box books better than Google
  • Likes the pop-up results window
  • Loads in all browsers except Opera, which only displays it periodically

All of our sites currently contain the Google search box. Would we consider changing?

Perhaps – from the sounds of these comments, Bing’s site search functions work pretty well.

But Google remains the top search engine and actually gained market share in September. Bing is listed #3 by comScore and while they have an ongoing partnership with Yahoo, both of them put together still take less than half of the market share Google does.

See the chart below:

Explicit Core Share* of U.S. Searches Among Leading Providers, September 2010 vs August 2010
  Share of Searches (%)
Domain August 2010 September 2010

Month-over-Month Point
Change (%)
Google Sites 65.4 66.1 0.7
Yahoo Sites 17.4 16.7 -0.7
Microsoft Sites 11.1 11.2 0.1
Ask Network 3.8 3.7 -0.1
AOL Network 2.3 2.3 0.0

Note: Data is based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

*Excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with search results.
Source: comScore 2010

Filed Under: Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Site Architecture Tagged With: , , , , ,

Usability and your Website – Make Sure Your Website is Easy to Follow

November 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment

In recent weeks, I’ve begun exploring the concepts of usability and how they relate to the web. While we constantly evaluate sites for clients for ease of use among other things, I hadn’t spent much time discussing the concept of usability on our blog.

In short, a site with good usability is able to answer four important questions in a matter of seconds without the user having to think. Three seconds is a good rule of thumb. Those questions are:

  • Where am I?
  • What can I do here?
  • What do they have here?
  • Why should I be here and not somewhere else?

Websites who do not answer these questions immediately do not experience their potential. If someone has to think very hard about how to navigate or even have to expend mental energy trying to figure out what you’re about, they’re most likely going to leave and never return.

Good web usability also makes it easy for a person to find out where they are in a site. Say for instance a visitor is on a product page deep within your site but wants to start over at the beginning. Good usability allows them to do that in one click without having to put much thought into it.

Speaking of the homepage – it’s very different than the rest of the pages on your site – different in that it must address each type of prospective customer that visits your site in a short space.

For homepages, the following guidelines are a good place to start. Remember, guidelines are more like suggestions so these are not meant to be all inclusive. Some may not work for the type of business you’re in or you may find yourself needing to add something else.

Regardless of that, below are some of main elements your site’s homepage needs to have in order to answer the four questions above for any type of user.

Site Identity and Mission – Include a unique tagline and value proposition in the top left area of your page. A person who reads this should be able to figure out what you do just by reading these few words.

Site Hierarchy – Make your site’s hierarchy is clearly visible and navigable. Top or side navigation helps users find out what you offer and channels them to the place they’re looking for.

Search – Some people just like to search rather than click links to get from place to place on a website. Like a search engine, a site search box allows you to type in a keyword phrase and find all documents within the site that include those words.

Teasers, promos, etc. – Encourage users to interact with your site and spread the news to their friends. Teasers, promos and discounts draw readers’ interest and provide them with a tangible benefit to choosing you over someone else.

Timely Content – Farther down the homepage, you should also include snippets of relevant and timely content. Doing so builds your credibility as a trusted source as well as gives users not too familiar with what you offer the opportunity to learn more.

Include Shortcuts – Shortcuts can be used to provide users easy access to popular pages. Perhaps someone already knows what they’re looking for. Give them the opportunity to get it in just one easy click.

Of course, there are many other usability conventions you have to be aware of for all of your pages. Clear, clickable links is one example that comes to mind. Links must be clearly identifiable or else a visitor will search around for a link and then leave your site.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be adding more information about usability and how you can design a website that’s easy to navigate, figure out and requires little to no thinking. We’ll also provide some names and resources for you to learn more.

Until next time!

Filed Under: Site Architecture, Tip of the Day, Usability Tagged With: , , ,

7 Ways Site Search Benefits your Online Marketing Efforts

April 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Many websites today contain lots of information on helping visitors educate themselves and answer questions without making contact. These sites though are increasingly complex…and with all the features jam packed into today’s websites, it can be difficult for visitors to even ascertain if the site has what  they need, much less how to find it.

This is the central reason why installing a “site search” function on your website is a necessary investment for making your website a dependable lead generating tool.

Below are 7 advantages you can expect to see from installing a “site search” function on your website.

1. Satisfies customer’s “I want now” attitude

Time is money no doubt and many people who encounter a confusing site with lots of content won’t stick around long to dig through it. A site search gives someone the opportunity to quickly enter keyword phrases on what they’re looking for rather than sift through what they see as a confusing navigational structure.

2. Helps make your site more “customer-centric”

Successful websites must cater to a wide-range of Internet users – knowledge seekers, prospects, buyers and long-term customers. Site search helps you do this since it helps knowledge seekers find information on your site more easily…in essence, site search helps you transform your site from a “one size fits all” to a more “customer-centric” approach.

3. Appeals to the “searcher” type site visitor

People are different and prefer different ways of finding things. If someone uses a Google search to find you, they are more likely to rush to the search box to find information within your site.

4. Obtain valuable marketing data

With the right analytic tools, you can gather data from your site search function that gives you valuable information on who visits your site and how they navigate around it – their desires, intent and behavior. You can see exactly which pages they looked for and found and which ones they read and which ones prompted them to leave the site…this information can be tremendously helpful when planning your marketing strategy.

5. Site search provides insight into usability issues

Saving usage data and click path from real users through your site search function allows you to easily locate where users had difficulty, giving you clues as to places you need to update or expand. Adding typical searched on phrases can help you and your copywriters learn about who is using your site and plan content accordingly.

6. Get new product ideas

Looking at user’s searches can also help you identify new products. If a large number of customers search for something you don’t yet offer, you may want to consider offering a product that fills that void – especially if your site is already bringing in traffic for it.

7. Learn new keywords

Site search may also help you find keywords you weren’t aware, allowing you the opportunity to work those into your content. You may have pages you think are relevant to a specific topic that is missing the words people actually use to look for it. This information can help you refine your content and reach a wider audience.

To be successful online, you need to be mindful on new ways people are using to find and disseminate information online. Those looking to evolve their websites according to user demands could use a good site search function on their sites.

We recommend starting with Google custom search, which is readily adaptable to your needs.

Filed Under: Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Benefits of Installing Site Search on your Website

January 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment

As the Internet has evolved over the years, websites have grown more complex. You don’t need me to tell you that many websites contain a wealth of information on their respective niches.

And with the advent of social networking and other means of finding and disseminating information, web users are growing ever pickier about the websites they visit. That’s why installing site search on your site is an important step in building search engine rankings and boosting conversion rates.

There’s many reasons why more site visitors are immediately going to a site search to find information on a website. These include confusing navigation, cluttered design and even pure impatience. In fact, studies suggest that a person will leave a site if the search function is poor or not there around 80% of the time.

But site search has even more benefits for webmasters and SEO professionals. With the proper analytical tools, site owners can get a lot of information about their site visitors and how they navigate around their site. You can transform your site into a “customer centric” from a static “one size fits all” approach.

Take a look at our newest article in the search engine optimization knowledge center regarding the benefits of site search and stay tuned to the SEO-e blog for recommendations on good site search tools you can easily purchase for your website.

Filed Under: Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Site Architecture Tagged With: , , ,